What is Real User Monitoring? Tools & Techniques

Real User Monitoring is a passive performance monitoring technique that collects and analyzes user interactions across browser and mobile applications in order to evaluate and improve the end-user experience.

How Does RUM Work?

The ability to monitor users in real-time is critical to optimizing user experience. RUM provides greater insight into the user journey by reporting web performance metrics and alerting when signs of an urgent issue are detected. RUM tools can capture the entire user session to gain context regarding errors, and can improve front-end to backend visibility to troubleshoot intermittent performance problems.

Benefits of RUM

The ability to monitor users in real-time is critical to optimizing user experience. RUM provides greater insight into the user journey by reporting web performance metrics and alerting when signs of an urgent issue are detected. RUM tools can capture the entire user session to gain context regarding errors, and can improve front-end to backend visibility to troubleshoot intermittent performance problems.

RUM vs Synthetic Monitoring

RUM is a form of passive monitoring that operates continuously in the background, collecting and analyzing information on actual users and their actions. Synthetic monitoring involves deploying scripts to simulate possible user paths and generating baselines that are free from noise generated by individual user environments.

RUM and APM Strategy

RUM is an integral part of an effective APM strategy. While performance data from APM offers valuable information, RUM allows you to delve deeper into the behavior of a user or users to gain greater awareness of their front-end digital experience, including any anomalies or mobile application incidents. Optimizing performance and eliminating downtime are two APM goals; data from end-user experience monitoring facilitates both.

RUM Tools

AppDynamics offers web page and mobile app-based real user monitoring tools that provide a single view of user interactions with application performance context across the globe and in real-time. Streamline your application performance management (APM) strategy with a suite of experience monitoring tools that provide code-level insights designed to facilitate troubleshooting and improve performance.

"It’s a tool that offers seamless traceability and a view that bridge both the APM and the Business product usage effectively."